Decepticon Paintball
“Welcome to Africa,” Marauder says as he spreads his arms wide apart, gesturing to the forest behind him. He stands on the paved area, between the natural forest, and the section that has been enhanced for this exercise. Looking around, he squints, his facial expression suggesting that he is anything but pleased, “Is this it? Hmm, no doubt my standing in the Empire has been tarnished by my enforced absence. No matter, you are here, and will be better Decepticons for it. While studying these humans, I discovered that they train, recreationally, with paint pellets.” He gestures towards the building, “In that compound, you will find equipment that will temporarily retrofit your systems to fire these pellets. When they strike, they will splatter paint across you, indicating a hit.” He pauses, hoping that they have been able to follow along so far. “Within the course, you will find two defensible areas, as well as some surprises. Your objective is to capture and hold both bunkers for three rounds, while staying alive. If you ‘kill’ all your enemies, you can occupy both bunkers at your leisure. But you must remain alive to do it.” "Do we win anything?" Boomslang asks, with an avaricious gleam in his eye. Windshear nods, "Yea, what he said." Dreadwind is here, not that he wanted to be in a jungle it's full of creatures and rust inducing moisture and a thousand other dangers and that's not even counting the other Decepticons. "Paint? Great so that added to the rust and whatever insects manage to crawl inside us we'll be suffering for weeks." Welcome to Africa, indeed. Home of the Predacons, which is why Rampage is here. And since he's a gunner, this activity appeals to him. He shoulders the paintball gun and looks at Marauder. "Do you 'die' if a paintball just hits your hand?" he wonders. Windshear looks at Dreadwind, "Hey why are you complaining... if anyone has issues with the moisture here it’s me... come on. You and I can take them out -- the power of gloom will prevail." he snickers a bit at that. Dreadwind sighs heavily at Windshear's comment, "You'll just get killed by it it's far worse to survive, far, far worse. I don't even know why I was sent here." Eventually he trudges over to the equipment area to get re-equipped, "This is going to end badly I just know it." "I hope I'm not on your team," Boomslang tells Dreadwind unhelpfully. "You'd be a free kill for the other teams as you'd just stand there in a clearing crying bitter oily tears into a paper bag." Marauder narrows his optics at Boomslang, “No, this is merely a training exercise. The victor will have the distinction of having won the inaugural Decepticon Paintball Championship. You will have earned the respect and admiration of your lessers, or at the very least, the satisfaction of having defeated them. If any part of you is struck, you die.” What he doesn’t say is that the paint has to be visible to count. If one were to immediately cover it up, well, who would be the wiser? “Afterwards, the paint will be washed, and we will run this course a second time. Only, you will use live ammunition in that second round. Then you will be defeated when you are deactivated, or when you surrender. As a precaution, medics are available. In the field, this would be to the death, but we are all Decepticons here.” Windshear follows Dreadwind over to get the paintball refit. He glances at Boomslang. "He’s on 'my' team." he rumbles. "Don't worry about it. Id to into battle with Dread at my side any day." he grabs some paint weapon and looks around for a good colour ammo that strikes his fancy. Dreadwind sighs and stares straight through Boomslang with his mournfully dull optics, "You do realise that we don't cry; that seems to be a flesh based phenomenon. It's not as if this will kill us at best we'll be blinded or worse the corrosive substances in the paint reacts with some of our finer components and cause a gradual painful melt down of our systems." "I've seen Blot... wait, maybe that was just leaking," Boomslang muses. Marauder turns to the side, where there is a computer terminal built into a desk. He types in those present, and randomises the teams. What the computer spits out at him surprises him, “How interesting, it would seem that fate has decided that Rampage, Dreadwind, and Darkwing will compete as the blue team, hence you will load blue pellets into your weapons, while Boomslang, Windshear, and I will form the yellow team, naturally firing yellow pellets.” Marauder has already undergone the minor refit necessary to fire pellets, and so he begins loading yellow paintballs into his chamber. “The Blue Team will begin in control of the Concentre Bunker, while the Yellow Team will begin in control of the Jungle Bunker. You may decide between yourselves who will occupy it, but the objective is to maintain control over your bunker while also capturing your opponents’ bunker. Naturally, you cannot do this if you are dead, so staying alive is of paramount importance in this exercise.” Dreadwind sighs miserably and looks at his rifles and not even bothering to even think about tactics starts to trudge over to the concrete bunker, "Typical no matter where I go there he is... always one step behind me being all cheery and upbeat, it's so depressing." Dreadwind doesn't even mention the trouble of having Rampage as someone shooting people on the other team. Windshear heads over to the bunker and the mechs he was assigned too and then turns back around to face the opposing 'team'. He pulls his rifle up and aims at... Dreadwind. "Hey... buddy... look out." he drawls humorously and fires. Darkwing loads up on the paint, as he is supposed to. Not really seeing the point. Paint? How is one supposed to spread suffering with bright happy colours? Next combat training will involve over stuffed pillows and small multicoloured equines... Marauder notes one Decepticon whom he had missed, currently near the jungle, and is he eating a plant? "Cindersaur!" He calls out, "I had a feeling you might show yourself. You will take my spot on the yellow team, and courtesy of Swindle, you'll need this." He grabs one of two very large canisters, and carries it over to the Monster, "This'll enable you to spray paint in much the same way you do fire." Dreadwind naturally doesn't even react as Windshear calls out to him in fact he fully expected someone to shoot him in the back probably Darkwing. However the shot flies wide of the intended mark and splats against the bunker, "Great they're firing an annoyingly bright paint, I knew it." He does however get to the bunker before the rest of his team and sets up camp or rather just slumps miserably against the back wall fully expecting to be the first shot. Boomslang flashes his jets to jump up onto the jungle bunker, as soon as he's got his paintball attachments fitted to his weapons, and makes a rude robo-gesture at Dreadwind. "Good luck, Gloomy! You're going to need it!" Dreadwind says, "Luck? Don't talk to me about luck, if I had any luck I wouldn't be here right now..." Cindersaur looks at the canisters Marauder is bringing over. The poison ivy hangs from his mouth. "Why need canisters?" He looks around, finds a 55 gallon drum of neon gayboi pink, picks it up, and chugs it like a college senior. Soon, he has it gone, and burps, "Cindersaur ready..." The Predacon makes his way into the Jungle to start the game. He transforms, letting the paintball gun replace his gun-port gun. With Dreadwind occupying the Concentre Bunker on the extreme west of the course, and Boomslang occupying the Jungle Bunker on the extreme east, Marauder does a final check, making sure that Rampage and Darkwing’s systems are armed with blue pellets, and that Cindersaur and Windshear are armed with yellow. “When I fire my railgun, you will begin. He moves to a position outside of the jungle, looks at each side, unable to see them through the thick jungle. He looks to the other side, and is equally disturbed. Of course, he simply switches his imaging to a different spectrum and he can seem them all clearly, though that is an ability that few possess. “Ready, set, BOOOOOM” His railgun fires high into the air, sending a real shell well beyond the course, and on its way to breaking orbit. The game has begun. Windshear hers the railgun go off to start the 'battle' and again attempts to draw a bead on Dreadwind. Once he’s satisfied he’s got it he fires. Cindersaur charges, rahring, trees getting knocked over as the firecon makes a beeline for the sniper tower. Reaching there, he looks for a target, perhaps not so sure on whom’s supposed to be on his side, but stands there, guarding the sniper tower, pink paint trickling from his muzzle, ready for any targets to show. "HA!" the robot tiger announces, as he fires a paintball round at Windshear. "Surprise my ally, will ya?" A blue paintball flies at the Seeker. "SPLAT!" Dreadwind slumps miserably in the bunker and another shot fires off in his general direction and again even though he doesn't dodge in the slightest the bunker is the one to take the hit. "Effort, such a waste, even moreso here..." Boomslang crouches behind the jungle bunker's battlements for partial cover and shoulders his coilgun, which of course has been fitted with a paintball attachment on the end. Putting his eye to the sights, Boomslang fires off several quick shots at the most obvious member of the opposite team with a *thup thup thup thup* sound. Darkwing watches as everyone focuses on his bro, like he knew they would. He wonders if Dread intentionally chooses to be the biggest target so he'd lose first, or chose an area where he thought he could gloom in peace. As Boomy gets the hit, Darkwing can't help but feel a need for vengeance. "Hey, you shot my lil buddy!" He says and pulls out his paint filled Electro-static rifle, and fires on Boomslang. Marauder enters the periphery of the course, but rather than stay on the ground, he leaps up into the trees, resting on a branch. Despite his size and weight, it supports him, proving to him as well as any other who might spot him that this jungle is not what it seems. He observes for a moment, before moving westward, from tree to tree, ruffling them, before leaping back to a tree he had been in before, where he comes to a complete stop. A moment later, the trees cease their shaking. When Dreadwing is the first to be shot, he isn't surprised. That it came from the opposite side of the course did. Looking east, he gives a silent and likely unseen nod to Boomslang. Of course, his respect is short lived, as Darkwing proves himself to be an excellent shot. <> He begins making his way through the trees towards the jungle bunker. Misfire crouches down and begins to make his way through the course towards the Concrete Bunker. He mumbles to himself, "So nice to have a weapon that doesn't talk back...." He clutches his paintball rifle closer to his chest as he moves towards the Concrete Bunker. Windshear evades a shot from Rampage and taking cover behind one corner of the bunker he returns fire on the catcon. Rampage nimbly dodges the paintball sent in his direction. "Oh no you don't!" he retorts at Windshear, "I'm going to paint you blue!" He twists around and fires again. Dreadwind hasn't moved since the game started and sooner or later someone was going to hit him, not that he cares, he knows there is no point in trying to improve yourself. Sure enough the sniper manages to strike him a terrible blow of yellow paint on his chest; miserably he gets up and trudges from the battlefield. He doesn't even notice when his cheery aft section manages to get revenge for him, not that he wanted any. Splat! Yellow paint covers Boomslang's canopy and he punches his fist into the sandbags atop the bunker in annoyance. "Out already, slag! At least I took one down, I guess." He sits down on the bunker and watches the rest of the contest play out. Darkwing is a bit surprised he took out the yellow's sniper with one shot, but chuckles some. He then notices the pissing match between Windshear and Rampage, and decides to try and help free up his team mate, as he once again aims his trusty blasters at Windy, trying to go for a headshot. Marauder passes by Boomslang on his way into the jungle bunker, and gives him a curt nod, “That was a nice shot you made on Dreadwind.” He orients himself, trying to ensure that he presents the least amount of target as he can, and then aims his electron cannon out of one of the slits, looking for a target. As Darkwing already scored two hits, he’s as good a target as any. The electron cannon inches through the slit, trying to get a good angle through the trees, and when Marauder is confident, he pulls the trigger, this time sending a few quick pellets of yellow paint that will splatter on impact. Misfire glances around from his bunker as he places his gun in the window waiting for some poor sap, errrr Comrade to come walking by. He spies the Sniper Tower and stares at it. "I wonder if anyone is up there." He takes some pot shots at the tower. Cindersaur knows the bunker is important, so he moves where he can fire 'unimpeded' at the bunker. He seems to take a DEEP breath, before FWOOOOOOOSSSHHHH, a spray of neon gayboi pink paint is launched at the bunker, and whoever is foolish enough to be poking around the observation portals. "Should've displaced faster afterwards, his partner caught me with my engines cold," Boomslang replies tersely, watching Rampage and Windshear intently. Dreadwind finally leaves the battlefield and slumps over his newly paint adjusted weapons not even test fired, though he does start apparently talking to himself. "Okay fine, you can take all the credit just leave me alone I don't enjoy this, no sane person would." “Drat,” Marauder intones as he clearly sees his yellow paint pellets splatter, hitting the trees. With Windshear, Cindersaur, and Boomslang already hit, he’s all that’s left of the yellow team, and the blue team has Rampage, Darkwing, and Misfire. Not liking these odds, he begins firing through the slits from his jungle bunker, not really bothering to aim. It’s more about suppression, giving him a moment to think, and hopefully taking one or two of them in his wild burst. Rampage snickers as Darkwing takes out Windshear. "Hey Windshear, ever think of trying out for the Blue Man Group?" He runs at Marauder. "I think blue would look good on you!" But then he gets splattered by Marauder! "Ugh, bladder infection yellow," he snorts. He lets fly with blue murder! Darkwing blinks in astonishment as Misfire of all mechs, actually hits something. Well With him down, there is only one guy left to attack, the same one that tried to take him out a moment ago. Well, no reason to stop now. He turns and returns fire with his trusted blasters to fire on marauder before being hit with yellow paint. Misfire ducks under the return fire. He hunkers down deeper in the corner. "I think I hit something..." He says to his weapon. He pauses for a moment waiting for a response. "Oh right, not Aimless...Glad no one saw that." He lifts up slightly and aims at the other bunker window as he takes shoots at Marauder. Windshear gets splattered across the head with a blob of clue paint... well that sucks. He wipes some of it off and then looks at Rampage. After a moment he gives the Redicon a human gesture with his hand and walks off the field of 'battle'. When the paintballs finally stop flying, Marauder stands to survey the battlefield. "It would seem that Misfire here is our only survivor. The blue team wins. Once you've all washed off that paint and returned your weapon load outs to normal, we're going to do this again, only this time; this will be a live fire exercise." "Now blue team's really gonna get it," Boomslang sneers, ever the optimist. Dreadwind has already got his weapons un-paintballed some would argue that he really shouldn't have bothered in the first place, "Great we won, that means we'll be the losers this time for sure, they'll all be after revenge for an insignificant slight of losing. If only they realised that losing isn't what they should be angry about not when there's something much much worse." Dreadwind stares silently at Misfire for a while before replying, "Yes, I just have to wait till the universe itself dies and then finally I get a moments respite, but I’m not looking forward to it." Misfire raises his hand to high-five Dreadwind. "Fantastic!" Dreadwind looks at the raised hand fully expecting it to hit him in the faceplate, "No... It’s not." With that he turns and trudges back to the mock battlefield apparently eager to get this over with if eager is a word that can ever be truly applied to Dreadwind. Rampage takes off the paintball gun, then transforms, in favour of his lightning rifle. "That's better," he says, "Now this is what I'm talking about." Misfire glances around at the other Decepticons. He rubs his jaw. "So, uh, real weapons?" He rocks on his heels. "I'm Aimless-less" He says out loud to no one. Marauder, looking around as everyone seems to have been washed and retrofitted, “All right, Team Blue, occupy your bunker and get out there. Team Yellow, you’re with me.” He marches out towards the other half, heading straight for the jungle bunker, which he sets himself up in. Darkwing decides to take the bunker this time. Boomslang springs off his team's bunker and rushes for the tower, which promises a commanding line of sight! He jinks through the woods as he goes, dashing from tree to tree to use the clusters of foliage which are big enough to partially conceal him as cover. Dreadwind has already taken the field having had ample time for a refit having gone out first with absolutely no effort and seems to be heading straight for the safety of the bunker yet again except that Darkwing races ahead of him and claims it. He sighs deeply and turns back towards the battlefield, "Life, it's just so depressing." He draws his rifles and points them at the other Deceticon teams positions sending heated bursts of energy in multiple directions. Cindersaur heads out after clearing his system of the pink, he aughs as he's dinged by Dreadwing's attack. He roars, and unleashs a gout of flame in Dreadwind's direction. Rampage charges at Marauder, "I'm going to make you pay for painting me piss yellow!" he growls, levelling his lightning rifle at the Yellow Team Member. "BLUE FOREVER!" Windshear gets shot by Dreadwind of all mech. "Hey... did I ask you to do that?" he asks as he raises and arm cannon and returns fire. "With your luck this won’t hurt a bit.." Boomslang jets up into the sniper nest and gets settled just in time to duck the hissing sweep of Dreadwind's melter beam. "Missed me!" he laughs, vanishing into the digital equivalent of a puff of smoke before Dreadwind can fire again. Marauder ducks behind saying, “Not likely” as he uses the cover of his jungle bunker when the Predacon charges at him, growling and firing blasts of lightning at the bunker, but fortunately, doing nothing to the Secret Service agent inside. With his back to the wall, a slit on the left, a slit on the right, he dives down within the bunker, rolling, and throws a spinning disk out of the left slit, hoping to strike the still charging Rampage. Darkwing takes aim from inside the bunker, Boom's too well hidden and so is Marauder. That leaver Windy and Cindersaur... He pauses a moment to consider his options, and decides to try and take the monster, the only yellow team member he hasn't gotten a hit on tonight. Dreadwind looks thoroughly depressed, well more depressed than normal as he hits all but one of the targets he aimed for. Not even the gentle breezes that waft by him from Cindersaur and Windshear does anything to warm his spirits. "I've told you before, effort leads to nothing, but suffering, you feel it now do you not? The start of greater pain the beginning of the end... You won't thank me for this no one ever does." Dreadwind holsters one rifle and in a surprising bursts of motivation trudges forwards attempting to punch Windshear in the face. Windshear gets clocked in his pretty face and stumbles back. Any other time he’d be mad but it came from Dreadwind and in a burst of movement and speed that totally takes him by surprise. The Zombie seeker starts laughing. "Slag I didn’t think you had that in you. Dread!!" he keeps laughing but then suddenly hauls off with a haymaker from left field aimed straight for Dreads face. Rampage ows as he's shuriken-ed. "Who do you think you are, the Bounty Hunter?" Rampage retorts, firing his lasers at the Decepticon that's trying to keep the bunker Cindersaur rahrs, and starts igniting the jungle, spewing flame all over. Boomslang settles his sights over his target and flicks his rifle's infrared laser on, painting Rampage's relatively un-armored waist section for Yellow Team's munitions. "Can't have you prying our folks out of position," he mutters, keeping one eye peeled for the larger movements of the opposing force in case anyone should try sneaking up on his position. Dreadwind sighs miserably as his fist connects with Windshear, yet another mark against him, another tally to the suffering that will return to him a thousand fold as the vorns pass. Thankfully though he is hit in return paying off some of what he has accrued. "I don't..." he complains as he is hit in the favourite target of his attackers, his faceplate. It buckles under the blow and Dreadwind falls over backwards and just lies there, was that a one hit knockout? Darkwing sighs. Once again, he's got back up Dreadwind who can barely take care of himself. It’s bad enough he had to take the bunker to stop him from hiding in it; now he gets knocked out with a single punch... from Windshear! Primus! He sighs once again and takes air at the zombie seeker. Marauder remarks from behind the bunker wall, “I am Marauder, remember it!” When he looks out, he is greeted with the sight of laser coming towards his head. It fires through the slit, but Marauder pulls back in time. “Interesting,” he remarks, and slides to the other slit in the jungle bunker’s defences, aiming his railgun out the window. “I do hope that Razorclaw won’t be angry if I return one of his Predacons in pieces,” he remarks to himself as he engages his firing mechanism, charging up the railgun, and letting loose a volley at incredible speeds. Windshear's laugh settles into a satisfied smirk as his fist smashed into Dreads face. To badd 'buddy'. All’s fair in war and fighting with Decepticons. He watches Dread falls back and then suddenly is hit by Darkwing's attack. It does some damage but scrambles his head more than anything else. He stumbles back dazed and confused. "The Sharkticon ate your cannon, Megatron -- its Shockwaves fault..." he strummers as he falls back onto his aft. Cindersaur tromps through the area, more and more of the jungle starting to burn... Rampage ows as he's nailed but good. He staggers forward, furiously firing back at Marauder. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" he shouts in frustration. "And as for you," Boomslang says through a cheshire grin as he lays his sights over Darkwing. "Gonna teach you a lesson about tagging me out of the game so early." His HUD comes up and overlays Darkwing with a motion analysis readout, calculating his armor vulnerabilities based on his articulation and overlaying them on Boomslang's vision as he dials in. Darkwing firing his weapon twice in a row at full power, while super effective, also drains his energon levels quickly and is already getting reports of needing to refuel. Good thing he's a powermaster. Hi-Test revs as he resupplies his larger partner, while Darkwing takes a moment to decide the next course of action. Marauder pulls back after firing his railgun, and decides to peek back through the same slit a moment later, expecting Rampage to have looked at the other slit, but with a fifty percent chance, he guesses wrong, and gets singed by a disruptor beam, which skids off his helmet, striking part of his shoulder assembly. “Damn that Predacon,” he mutters as he pulls himself back behind the wall. While he catches his breath a moment, eh transmits, <> He takes another peek, this time from the north slit. Back behind the safety of the jungle bunker he goes, where he pulls out a small spherical object. He presses a button, and tosses it idly out the south slit. Dreadwind lies there fully expecting a number of blasts to the chest and then the head but again he is disappointed as nothing happens, achingly he pulls himself upright and then to his feet. He hears the gibbering from Windshear and responds as he strides forwards, "You see it at last? The truth, the terror of existence itself, what it means to live... you won't suffer long." He steps forwards and lashes out with his right foot. In Dreadwind's optics there's nothing wrong with kicking a Cybertronian when he's down, in fact it takes a lot less effort. Cindersaur rahrs, and continues to defoliate the jungle with flames, lots and lots of fire. Windshear vaguely hears Dreadwind’s remarks and then gets a boot to the chest. He falls back hard. "Sharkticons are the truth?" he asks and then shakes his head and sits up. He’s damaged and damaged pretty good at this point. Various systems are blasting readouts and warnings through his internal HUD and he realizes he’s at a bigger disadvantage then usual right now. But slag it. The Zombie seeker lifts up an arm cannon where he thinks Dreadwind’s at, yea he’s getting that messed up. "Let me try this again -- hold still." he says and fires. Darkwing is pondering the current situation. He can't leave this post, if they want to win, since there is only 3 of them. Rampage is trying to get the other one. Cindersuar seems to have the lights on but no one's home, so it seems that evens things out a bit. Now if Dread could finish Windshear and try to take the... Of course in the middle of the ponder he gets struck and knocked down. No Mario World attack is going to nail Rampage! He dodges what Marauder throws at him and shoots back! Boomslang squeezes the trigger, blast wave rolling back from his muzzle brake as a tungsten slug slashes through the jungle towards the other bunker, ripping leaves off the trees it passes. He can't see Darkwing, exactly, since Darkwing's hit the deck (perhaps against his will), but Boomslang's calculated his target's trajectory and his round is more than capable of punching through Blue Team's bunker from end to end. Cindersaur is doing a bang up job clearing out any and all green cover... and creating this epic scale smoke cloud for anyone and everyone who's paying attention to notice. Dreadwind stares forlornly as Windshear goes sprawling only to mount a feeble retort which fires wildly off somewhere else, "It would seem you have lost more than your senses. Move? No, I am always here, always right in front of you, you just refuse to see me only a glimpse is seen and then comes death..." Dreadwind raises his arm and looks as if he's about to bring it straight down for a kill strike on the prone seeker but instead his wrist weapon fires. The cute little grenade that Marauder hurled hit one of the trees, bounced, and landed in a little rock garden. There, it continued to move its feet, inching forward, and one step at a time, until suddenly it stops. It explodes, sending rocks in all directions, some imbedding themselves in the trees, others ricocheting off of them. The rocks create sparks, adding to the flames that Cindersaur has worked so diligently to produce, burning trees, and spreading the flames like an instant wildfire. A cloud of dust kicks up from the ground as the branches, rocks, and debris hits the dirt, making the haze of smoke and fire all the more thick. And all the while, Marauder hides in the jungle bunker, though at this stage, he wishes he were in the concrete one. Cindersaur discovers he has a sound system incorporated in his chassis, and starts playing Wagner's Flight of the Valkyries while setting fire to the jungle around him. Windshear gets shot in the chest. "Not fair." he mutters and then somehow, someway staggers back to his feet. Exposed circuitry is sparking, he doesn’t show the discomfort. A few pieces of armour drop off, he doesn’t show the discomfort. He sways for a moment as he looks at Dreadwind. "Whichever one of you is the real Dreadwind." he begins, his voice a bit tight, the only indication that he’s hurting. "Can go away...I’ve got a bunker to take... we can... have fun killing each other... later." and with that he heads toward the bunker. And then suddenly he’s hit again! "OH COME ON!!" he rasps loudly and keeps heading toward the other bunker. Almost as an afterthought he raises his arm cannons and does a walking 'scraffing' run as he goes. Luckily for Boomslang the forest fire doesn't happen to come too close to his location. Drifting cinders fall on the observation tower, but he just hunkers down and guards his spot. He's just got to put up with the lasers, for now at least. Darkwing is badly damaged thanks to Boom's extra attack, his armour cracked, the powermaster currently having trouble getting to his feet as his systems reboot. The forest Fire doesn't faze Rampage as he goes for the tower and its occupant. "Hey, Invisible Mech! Come on out of there!" he shouts, attempting to roust Boomslang. Little running bombs don't go anywhere near him after he growls at them. Dreadwind can't believe how badly this is going as Windshear takes another blow and then the world erupts in disgustingly bright flame all around him. However somehow Dreadwind emerges unscathed by the assault, perhaps his gloom is more than just protection against gaining friends? "Always brightness, a flare of life and then spiralling into darkness, but not for me. No I am forced to continue on with the terrible light." Windshear's comment causes him to pause for a moment, "You see him too, my constant companion, you are so close now, so very close." As Windshear's shots fly wide of the immobile mark perhaps aimed instead at his double the aspect of fear, he raises his rifle and fires back a single blast of super heated energy. Cindersaur moves toward the concrete bunker, spilling fire, and playing Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. Marauder looks up after his bomb has exploded, and is lucky enough to be struck by the indiscriminate fire of Windshear, one of his own teammates. “Watch where you’re firing, Windshear!” He calls out, oblivious to the fact that Windshear was damaged by shrapnel, fire, or otherwise by his bomb. As he watches Windshear, he realises that the seeker is heading towards the concrete bunker, and ever ready to assist, he takes careful aim with his railgun, trying to clear a path of destruction for Windshear to run through. Of course, that predisposes that Windshear will realise that he is clearing the pathway. Windshear takes another blast from Dreadwind. He looks back slowly as more armor falls off. Hes leaking out pretty good at this point but he doesnt let on how much hes hurting right now. That is a blessing and a curse. Right now its a curse cause hes not backing out of this like the warnings in his HUD are screaming at him to do. "Ok.." he says, "You know thats not going to stop .. me.." and he kind of stumble turns around and continues for the bunker. He hears Marauder then and just waves a dissmissive hand behind him, "Yea yea.." Cindersaur is working at turning the jungle less jungle-ly, and more flaming bonfire. Boomslang pops his autocannon out of his arm and fires off a rapid burst of 20mm at Rampage, driven back by the powerful impact still ringing in his cone! "Fat chance, Predacon," Boomslang replies over the noise, shell casings jangling to the ground in a stream. The railgun shell hits the ground, creating very small hole, since the shell isn’t terribly large, and it does not have any explosive quantities. “All right, let’s try that again, but I’ll have to remember to check just how deep that thing went into the ground.” Switching from the railgun to his easier to handle, and more accurate electron cannon, he aims it through the slit in his jungle bunker, and tries to hit Darkwing when he appears through the slits in the concrete jungle’s bunker. Darkwing groans as he looks up to Windshear as he tries to get the bunker he's in. He's not in the best of shape either, but by Primus he's not giving up the bunker that easily. "Sorry Friend. Not today." He grumbles, as he sits up, still not strong enough to stand, He curses as another attack hits him, mostly sparks from his already exposed inner parts. He manages to sit and his gun at Windshear, and pulls the trigger, with his systems damaged he's not sure he'll get a hit... Dreadwind watches as Windshear continues to retreat from him and then tries to oust his worst half from his cosy bunker. He moves his head one from side to side as he walks slowly after Windshear, "I'm not going to stop you, you are stopping yourself, struggling against the inevitable, and failing miserably, you should know better than that. It is time for you to lie still, to join all those friends that have gone before you." He raises both of his arms and the inbuilt weapons flare to life in unison. Rampage takes a bullet or two as he fights his way through. "I'm not that easy to shake off," he says to Boomslang, "Now get out of there before I throw you out!" He tries to grab for the green conehead in order to punt him. "Do you feel a bit outnumbered?" Boomslang calls down to Marauder, ejecting his combat knife from his wrist and reversing it in his hand. Swiftly he blocks Rampage's kick with his own shin and tries to elbow Rampage in the side of the head so that he can stab him in the hollow between neck and shoulder! And by now, there should be fire covering most of the area thanks to the efforts of Cindersaur. Windshear isn’t real sure what just happened. Bright flashes of energon weapons, more pain, more damage, and the last thing he is aware of, is kissing the ground as he falls offline. Dreadwind watches as Windshear falls to the ground and he feels only a tiny pang of depression as another drop falls into the vast ocean that is his miserable life. He turns, activates his flight systems and flies straight to the burning bunker, which is technically a flaming hole in the ground, "Time for you to join them Marauder, the flames are where you belong, the darkness doesn't call you." Dreadwind tries to eject the current occupant knowing full well that he will fail for the attempt alone if nothing else. Darkwing struggles to get to his feet, leaning on one of his blasters as a bit of a cane. He looks down to Windshear; on the plus side he's at least not the first to fall. Now he just needs to stay functional while this teammates get the other bunkers... Yeah, not easy. He takes aim, across the now cleared jungle and tries to hinder Marauder. Fortunately there is no hollow between Rampage's neck and shoulder. It's all very well protected by armour in the form of a short thick collar. The blade glances away harmlessly and the Predacon would be smirking if he wasn't wearing a face plate. "Is that all you got, Seeker?" He transforms and prepares to go postal on the green pointy-headed Decepticon. "No," Boomslang replies, stymied by Rampage's durable construction but not giving up yet! Leaping back from Rampage's slashing, hook-like spring-steel claws, Boomslang kicks off of the tiger-shaped Predacon and twists away as his jets ignite, transforming and dropping a 2000-pound bomb onto the point he's been defending! Which is, technically, a way of defending it. Had to bomb the village to liberate it, as they say. Marauder’s optics glow red in surprise as he feels the tug of an arm, and a mighty arm at that, for it manages to pull him forward, unbalancing himself and he falls, tumbling out of the jungle bunker, which has seen some serious damage and is only charitably called a bunker at this stage, “Why you power mad . . .” he begins, but it’s cut short as he smacks into some branches, falling, and feeling rather upset at himself for focusing on attack, ignoring his own defence, even if he hadn’t suffered a premeditated attack in quite some time. Unwilling to allow this injustice to continue, he lowers down, transforming into his M1A3 Abrams configuration, and drives forward. Clearly, if he cannot have the bunker, then no one can. Cindersur reaches the bunker, rahrs and moves to contest the building, seeming to build up for his big time flame blast, heat spilling from the mouth as he targets Darkwing. Rampage gets bombed as he tries to leap out of range of the explosion. The blast is bigger than he can get away from, and as he picks himself up he realizes something. Boomslang's in the air, and he's on the ground. That means the point that Boomslang was defending would be easier to wrest from him! Or so the Predacon hopes. Dreadwind sighs as he easily ousts Marauder, perhaps it's the extra power flowing through him from his little partner, or maybe the power of gloom compels all to give up hope. "Mad? No, I am the only one that sees clearly. You are the one who clouds his vision with hopes and dreams, petty things that crumble at your touch anything to tear your gaze from the terrifying truth..." Dreadwind just stands there as a tank tries to run him over or at least push him from the remains of the bunker but in this case the person standing in front of the tank has much better luck, not that he would say so. Boomslang carves a wide circle over the battlefield and straightens out to make a low, fast pass, transforming to come crashing back down feet-first towards Rampage in an attempt to knock him back off the capture point! Marauder leaps up, transforming back into his massive robot form, and is compelled to express his rage, unleashing it in all his fury as he pounds on the jungle bunker, trying to smash and grab his way in, whatever it takes, to dislodge Dreadwind from his nesting place. “Give it up, Dreadwind. You cannot withstand the might of Marauder. All those who stand before me will be crushed beneath my foot.” Of course, it’s mostly screams amidst the pounding, thrashing, and otherwise grunting. How dare Dreadwind defeat Marauder at his own game! Cindersaur blinks as the door is shut in his face, then he rahrs, pounding on the door, trying the door, ready to cook the freaking smeg head in the bunker. Darkwing takes time to steady himself, still weak from the damage lining up the shot and opens fire on Marauder to distract him from Dreadwing's occupation of the other Bunker. Dreadwind would smirk if he ever had any emotion other than utter depression, "I'm always trying to give up, and it’s everyone else that keeps making me take part. I didn't want to be here and yet I was sent, anything to get rid of me and now you want me gone too. No one wants me, no one wants to be around me, and trying to fight it is utterly pointless." As if to punctuate his miserable proclamation he slumps to a sitting position and refuses to budge. Rampage gets bumped off the site by the seeker, bouncing backwards. He crawls back up and tries to retake it again. Marauder pauses in his assault, leaping up, into a tree, and disappearing for a moment. The jungle bunker is badly damaged, with the roof gone, the walls littered with holes, structural damage. He moves through the trees, rustling them along the way, and then leaps to the ground, disappearing for a moment. When he returns to sight, it is on the other side of the jungle bunker, through the waterfall, and leaps at Dreadwind, two feet flying first, in an attempt to kick him out of the bunker in the most literal sense of the word. The tiger may have been shoved off, but he notes that his teammates succeeded in keeping their points, so they win! "HA HA! IN YOUR FACE PISS YELLOW!" Darkwing as the game is called in their favour, Darkwing slumps backwards, letting his injuries over come him for the time being. Victory in suffering, few greater rewards... Dreadwind could try and follow Marauder's pointless antics to try and get an upper hand but he just can't be bothered he's already finished off Windshear. True enough as Marauder impacts with him somehow all that happens is he slumps over some more but maintains control of the bunker and team Misery wins. Dreadwind as relatively uninjured as he is doesn't move to celebrate he just lies there, "Typical we won, now we'll have others gunning to take us out to prove they're better." He sighs deeply, "It never ends..." "Hmph," Boomslang grouches. "I guess Blue's the better men THIS time. Fire thing! Grab Windshear and let's go!" There is a brief sound of turbojets spooling up as he jumps up and transforms, and then with a snap-boom he ignites his afterburners and is almost immediately gone. Marauder had been raging a moment ago, and when his internal chronometer informs him that he has lost, he calms instantly, as if he blinked and suddenly he was his rational self again. “Indeed,” he says towards Boomslang. “I have found this exercise highly informative. I can only hope that the rest of you benefited from it as well. If nothing else, it has proven that Darkwing and Dreadwind, despite their outlooks, are highly effective.”